1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of networked computer systems. Specifically, the present invention relates to the field of sharing information in a computer conferencing system
2. Description of Related Art
A set of personal computers interconnected on a network can be effectively used as a data conferencing system. In such a system, each conference participant typically comprises a personal computer user having a computer, a display screen, a computer network interface and typically a mouse or cursor control device. Conference participants are linked together by a computer network. This network may comprise either a hardwired local area network (LAN) such as Ethernet, a telephone modem link or other conventional data communications network. Because the conference participants are linked via a computer network, the participants do not need to be located in the same physical space. Rather, an effective conference may be carried out as participants view common information on their local display screens and manipulate information using their local cursor control devices or other input devices.
Several problems are present in these prior art conferencing systems. In a typical conferencing application, a group of conference participants linked via a network share common information pertaining to a particular meeting or topic under discussion. By sharing information between conference participants, each participant is able to view and manipulate the information dispersed during the meeting. Immediately after a meeting is initiated, a pool of information collected during the meeting begins to accumulate. As each conference participant makes modifications or additions to this pool of meeting information, the individual contributions must be circulated around to the other conference participants so that each participant has a complete and up-to-date copy of the meeting information. It will be appreciated that maintaining synchronization and currency of the meeting information among all conference participants is a difficult task and may involve the transfer of large amounts of information. This task is complicated by the fact that during the course of the meeting, individual conference participants may choose to create their own independent private pool of information that relates in some way to the meeting or topic under discussion. As is the case during a face-to-face meeting, some information is shared among the meeting participants and other information or notes are kept private to a particular participant. Prior art conferencing systems have been unable to provide a means for maintaining private conference information.
It is a further problem in prior art conferencing systems that private information cannot be linked to public conference information in some meaningful way. In a typical conferencing scenario, an individual conference participant may take private notes that relate to the public subject matter under discussion at the conference. Thus, it is convenient to associate or link private notes with corresponding public conference subject matter. Prior art systems have been unable to provide a means for linking public and private information in a conferencing system.
Thus, a better method and apparatus for linking public and private information in a conferencing system is needed.